Athletic shoes for various of the more popular outdoor sports are usually constructed with cleats outwardly extending from the underside of the heel and sole to aid in turf traction by the wearer. While highly advantageous and preferred by participants of sports such as golf, use of the cleated shoes in walking through soft or muddy soils can result in unwanted adherence of ground clumps in and about the cleats. Such adherence is annoying to the wearer of the shoes by virtue of the added weight and discomfort incurred when walking. At the same time, the clumps can so effectively bury the cleat members as to at least partially if not completely eliminate the traction benefit thereof. When the latter occurs the purpose for which the cleats were provided is essentially defeated. As a consequence, many athletes such as golfers who depend on the traction afforded by the cleats frequently prefer to remove almost immediately any mud patches adhering to the underside of their cleated shoes.
Cleaning such cleated shoes on or off the wearer's foot of wet or caked on mud or dried dirt usually involves use of a utensil of sorts such as a pocket knife, screw driver blade, or other available implement suitable to effect scraping. These prior art approaches for cleaning can ultimately be effective but are generally unsatisfactory from the standpoint of getting mud or dirt on a user's hands and/or potentially abrading the user's knuckles or fingers from a slipping encounter with the relatively pointed end of the cleat members. This problem can become most acute where the mud has been permitted to dry and becomes increasingly difficult to remove. Most athletes, particularly golfers when on the golf course during a round of golf strongly prefer to maintain their hands clean and unabraded as could likely soil or otherwise adversely affect their subsequent handling of the golf clubs.
Despite recognition of the problem, a suitable utensil therefor has not previously been available.